![]() ![]() In fact, when Macbeth waffles and has second thoughts about killing Duncan, his ambitious wife urges him on by attacking his masculinity. On the other hand -maybe Macbeth is propelled by fate, maybe by his own dark desires, or maybe … just by his nagging wife.Īt the beginning of the play, Macbeth treats Lady Macbeth as an equal, if not more dominant partner. Why do people do the things they do, even when they know their actions are wrong? She'll Make a Man Out of You Or, may Macbeth is simply a figure to dramatize the ambiguity of human will and action. Maybe Macbeth is "fated" to become king, but how he comes to the crown is entirely up to him. The beauty of literature is that it doesn't have to be black or white. Again, is this fate? Or is this now his very own choice? ![]() Here, we see him having already accomplished his goal but still deciding to kill more. More proof? Take the moment when he thinks about whether to kill Banquo: "To be thus is nothing / But to be safely thus.-Our fears in Banquo/ Stick deep" (3.1.52-54). ![]() So, perhaps Macbeth has had inside him a murderous ambition all along and the three witches merely a dormant desire. When Macbeth first hears the sisters' prophesy, his thoughts turn to "murder" all on their own. In the play, we clearly see Macbeth deliberate about murder, and the witches, we should point out, never say anything to Macbeth about murdering Duncan. It's similar to saying that your brain tumor made you do it, or the evidence that some criminal behavior has genetic roots. So, maybe Macbeth is nothing more than a victim of fate: his fate made him a murderer. Think about the first time Macbeth encounters the witches -he's twice described as being "rapt" (1.3.56,60).Įven after this encounter Macbeth, at times, seems to move through the play in a dreamlike state, as when he follows a "dagger of the mind" toward the sleeping king's room just before he commits his first murder (2.1.50). What's more, the weird sisters' words clearly prompt Macbeth into action and we often get a sense that Macbeth is acting against his own will, as though he's in a trance. After all, the three witches prophesize that Macbeth will become king, and they also know the exact circumstances of Macbeth's downfall, which suggests that Macbeth has no control over his own fate. Maybe he's simply controlled by outside forces. In fact, he sound like he's horrified by his own thoughts-and haven't we all had some horrifying thoughts now and then? (Okay, maybe not as horrifying as regicide.) The difference is that most of us don't act on those horrifying thoughts. This doesn't sound like a man who's excited to start busting out with the treachery. But he's also terrified by his "horrible imaginings" -his hair stands on end and his heart races, "knock at ribs." "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical," says Macbeth, "Shakes so my single state" (1.3.152-153). When Macbeth hears the witches' prophesy, he's super interested in what they have to say-obviously, since they're saying that he's about to become king. Shakespeare may have asked it first, but Stephen Schwartz set it to music: "Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them"? Is Macbeth, like Elphaba, a good (or at least neutral) person driven to evil acts? Or is he just bad to the bone? To answer that, you have to decide whether he's acting out of free will-or whether he's simply a victim of fate. Unchecked ambition, Macbeth suggests, can never be fulfilled, and therefore quickly grows into a monster that will destroy anyone who gives into it.(Click the character infographic to download.) By contrasting these two characters with others in the play, such as Banquo, Duncan, and Macduff, who also want to be great leaders but refuse to allow ambition to come before honor, Macbeth shows how naked ambition, freed from any sort of moral or social conscience, ultimately takes over every other characteristic of a person. Lady Macbeth, once she begins to put into actions the once-hidden thoughts of her mind, is crushed by guilt.īoth Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want to be great and powerful, and sacrifice their morals to achieve that goal. Macbeth, a good general and, by all accounts before the action of the play, a good man, allows his ambition to overwhelm him and becomes a murdering, paranoid maniac. Macbeth and his wife act on their own to fulfill their deepest desires. The weird sisters' prophecies spur both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to try to fulfill their ambitions, but the witches never make Macbeth or his wife do anything. Macbeth is a play about ambition run amok. ![]()
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